Dieting

For the past 3 years, I’ve been doing an annual bulk/cut cycle. This means that from roughly September until March, I would be gaining weight. The purpose of this is because it’s easier to lift more weight and thus gain more muscle when you have more body mass (and also more energy because of the calorie surplus). Then from April to August, I would slowly work to cut off the weight I gained. The purpose of this is to lose the extra body fat and end up with a more toned figure.

This is what my progress has looked like over the past 3 years:

Recently, I had been thinking if I wanted to continue my bulk/cut into the future. Ultimately, the purpose of doing this cycling has been to produce a body I would be happy in. However, in this process, I’ve noticed that even in times where I have a visible six pack, I still looked down at myself and thought I was fat. So really this cycling wasn’t moving me any closer to the goal. So I decided to have this be my last year on the cycle.

Originally, I was planning on finishing my cut since there was only one month left, but then I started to think about the impact that staying on the diet was having. I have to meal prep and count my macros, which takes a lot of time and can really stress me out. I struggle to eat at restaurants or eat spontaneously, which has strained my relationship with Alex, friends, and family because I’ve made it so difficult for people to connect with me for half of the year. And it’s impacted my health as I’ve noticed increased instances of muscle cramps, dizziness, headaches, and other issues while I’m on my cut.

So I decided to end my cut early. I gain weight super fast, but now I can eat whatever I want again.